Evidence of exotoxin secretion of Piscirickettsia salmonis, the causative agent of piscirickettsiosis

Why Does Piscirickettsia salmonis Break the Immunological Paradigm in Farmed Salmon? Biological Context to Understand the Relative Control of Piscirickettsiosis

Piscirickettsiosis (SRS) has been the most important infectious disease in Chilean salmon farming since the 1980s. It was one of the first to be described, and to date, it continues to be the main infectious cause of mortality. How can we better understand the epidemiological situation of SRS? The catch-all answer is that the Chilean salmon farming industry must fight year after year against a multifactorial disease, and apparently only the environment in Chile seems to favor the presence and persistence of Piscirickettsia salmonis. This is a fastidious, facultative intracellular bacterium that replicates in the host’s own immune cells and antigen-presenting cells and evades the adaptive cell-mediated immune response, which is why the existing vaccines are not effective in controlling it. Therefore, the Chilean salmon farming industry uses a lot of antibiotics—to control SRS—because otherwise, fish health and welfare would be significantly impaired, and a significantly higher volume of biomass would be lost per year. How can the ever-present risk of negative consequences of antibiotic use in salmon farming be balanced with the productive and economic viability of an animal production industry, as well as with the care of the aquatic environment and public health and with the sustainability of the industry? The answer that is easy, but no less true, is that we must know the enemy and how it interacts with its host. Much knowledge has been generated using this line of inquiry, however it remains insufficient. Considering the state-of-the-art summarized in this review, it can be stated that, from the point of view of fish immunology and vaccinology, we are quite far from reaching an effective and long-term solution for the control of SRS. For this reason, the aim of this critical review is to comprehensively discuss the current knowledge on the interaction between the bacteria and the host to promote the generation of more and better measures for the prevention and control of SRS.

Secretion Systems in Gram-Negative Bacterial Fish Pathogens

Bacterial fish pathogens are one of the key challenges in the aquaculture industry, one of the fast-growing industries worldwide. These pathogens rely on arsenal of virulence factors such as toxins, adhesins, effectors and enzymes to promote colonization and infection. Translocation of virulence factors across the membrane to either the extracellular environment or directly into the host cells is performed by single or multiple dedicated secretion systems. These secretion systems are often key to the infection process. They can range from simple single-protein systems to complex injection needles made from dozens of subunits. Here, we review the different types of secretion systems in Gram-negative bacterial fish pathogens and describe their putative roles in pathogenicity. We find that the available information is fragmented and often descriptive, and hope that our overview will help researchers to more systematically learn from the similarities and differences between the virulence factors and secretion systems of the fish-pathogenic species described here.

Transcriptomic analysis reveals a Piscirickettsia salmonis-induced early inflammatory response in rainbow trout skeletal muscle

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in teleosts and is essential for movement and metabolism. Recently, it has been described that skeletal muscle can express and secrete immune-related molecules during pathogen infection. However, the role of this tissue during infection is poorly understood. To determine the immunocompetence of fish skeletal muscle, juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were challenged with Piscirickettsia salmonis strain LF-89. P. salmonis is the etiological agent of piscirickettsiosis, a severe disease that has caused major economic losses in the aquaculture industry. This gram-negative bacterium produces a chronic systemic infection that involves several organs and tissues in salmonids. Using high-throughput RNA-seq, we found that 60 transcripts were upregulated in skeletal muscle, mostly associated with inflammatory response and positive regulation of interleukin-8 production. Conversely, 141 transcripts were downregulated in association with muscle filament sliding and actin filament-based movement. To validate these results, we performed in vitro experiments using rainbow trout myotubes. In myotubes coincubated with P. salmonis strain LF-89 at an MOI of 50, we found increased expression of the proinflammatory cytokine il1b and the pattern recognition receptor tlr5s 8 and 12 h after infection. These results demonstrated that fish skeletal muscle is an immunologically active organ that can implement an early immunological response against P. salmonis.

Piscirickettsia salmonis-Triggered Extracellular Traps Formation as an Innate Immune Response of Atlantic Salmon-Derived Polymorphonuclear Neutrophils

Simple Summary

Within innate immunity, polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) are the most abundant leukocyte population. Alongside PMN, monocytes, eosinophils, and basophils are also known to exist. All of them can release extracellular traps (ETs), a complex web-like structure composed of chromatin decorated with nuclear histones, granular enzymes, peptides, and proteins, to firmly entrap invasive pathogens, thereby slowing dissemination and helping to develop proper immune responses against bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Here, we showed for the first time that Atlantic salmon-derived PMN released ETs-like structures in vitro, in response to highly pathogenic facultative intracellular rickettsial bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis. The release of ET-like structures from PMN could be a new alternative to improve farmed salmon’s defense against pathogens.

Abstract

Extracellular traps (ETs) are webs of DNA, citrullinated histones, anti-microbial peptides, and proteins that were not previously reported in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). ETs are mainly released from polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and are considered a novel PMN-derived effector mechanism against different invasive pathogens. Here, we showed that Atlantic salmon-derived PMN released ETs-like structures in vitro in response to highly pathogenic facultative intracellular rickettsial bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis. PMN were isolated from pre-smolt Atlantic salmon and stimulated in vitro with oleic acid and P. salmonis. Extracellular DNA was measured using the PicoGreen™ dye, while immunofluorescence image analysis was used to confirm the classical components of salmonid-extruded ETs. Future studies are required to better understand the role of Atlantic salmon-derived ETs orchestrating innate/adaptive immunity and the knowledge on regulation pathways involved in this cell death process. Thus, comprehension of salmonid-derived ETs against P. salmonis might represent novel alternative strategies to improve host innate defense mechanisms of farmed salmon against closely related rickettsial bacteria, as a complement to disease prevention and control strategies.

Development of piscirickettsiosis in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) smolts after intraperitoneal and cohabitant challenge using an EM90-like isolate: A comparative study

Piscirickettsiosis, caused by the intracellular Gram-negative bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis, is at present the most devastating disease in the Chilean salmon industry. The aim of this study was to analyse disease development after challenge with a P. salmonis strain (EM90-like) under a controlled environment by comparing intraperitoneal challenge with cohabitation challenge. The P. salmonis EM90-like isolate was cultured in a liquid medium for the challenge of 400 Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) smolts. Cumulative mortality was registered, necropsy was performed, and bacterial distribution in the tissues and histopathological changes were analysed. The results revealed a similar progression of the disease for the two different challenge models. Pathological and histopathological changes became more visible during the development of the clinical phase of the disease. Bacterial DNA was identified in all the analysed tissues indicating a systemic infection. Bacterial tropism to visceral organs was demonstrated by real-time quantitative PCR and immunohistochemistry. Better knowledge of disease development during P. salmonis infection may contribute to further development of challenge models that mimic the field situation during piscirickettsiosis outbreaks. The models can be used to develop and test future preventive measures against the disease.

Apoptosis inhibition of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) peritoneal macrophages by Piscirickettsia salmonis

To improve the understanding of the piscirickettsiosis pathogenesis, the in vivo apoptosis modulation of peritoneal macrophages and lymphocytes was studied in juvenile Salmo salar intraperitoneally injected with Piscirickettsia salmonis. Five fish were sampled at post-exposure days 1, 5, 8 (preclinical), 20 (clinical) and 40 (post-clinical period of the disease), and the leucocytes of their coelomic washings were analysed by flow cytometry (using the JC-1 cationic dye), TUNEL and cytology to detect apoptotic cells. A selective and temporal pattern of apoptosis modulation by P. salmonis infection was observed. Apoptosis in lymphocytes was not affected, whereas it was inhibited in macrophages but only during the preclinical stage of the induced piscirickettsiosis. Hence, it is postulated that P. salmonis inhibits macrophage apoptosis at the beginning of the disease development to survive, multiply and probably be transported inside these phagocytes; once this process is complete, macrophage apoptosis is no longer inhibited, thus facilitating the exit of the bacteria from the infected cells for continuing their life cycle.

Transcriptome Analysis of the Intracellular Facultative Pathogen Piscirickettsia salmonis: Expression of Putative Groups of Genes Associated with Virulence and Iron Metabolism

The intracellular facultative bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis is one of the most important pathogens of the Chilean aquaculture. However, there is a lack of information regarding the whole genomic transcriptional response according to different extracellular environments. We used next generation sequencing (NGS) of RNA (RNA-seq) to study the whole transcriptome of an isolate of P. salmonis (FAVET-INBIOGEN) using a cell line culture and a modified cell-free liquid medium, with or without iron supplementation. This was done in order to obtain information about the factors there are involved in virulence and iron acquisition. First, the isolate was grown in the Sf21 cell line; then, the bacteria were cultured into a cell-free liquid medium supplemented or not with iron. We identified in the transcriptome, genes associated with type IV secretion systems, genes related to flagellar structure assembly, several proteases and sigma factors, and genes related to the development of drug resistance. Additionally, we identified for the first time several iron-metabolism associated genes including at least two iron uptake pathways (ferrous iron and ferric iron uptake) that are actually expressed in the different conditions analyzed. We further describe putative genes that are related with the use and storage of iron in the bacteria, which have not been previously described. Several sets of genes related to virulence were expressed in both the cell line and cell-free culture media (for example those related to flagellar structure; such as basal body, MS-ring, C-ring, proximal and distal rod, and filament), which may play roles in other basic processes rather than been restricted to virulence.

Fast detection of Piscirickettsia salmonis in Salmo salar serum through MALDI-TOF-MS profiling

Piscirickettsia salmonis is a pathogenic bacteria known as the aetiological agent of the salmonid rickettsial syndrome and causes a high mortality in farmed salmonid fishes. Detection of P. salmonis in farmed fishes is based mainly on molecular biology and immunohistochemistry techniques. These techniques are in most of the cases expensive and time consuming. In the search of new alternatives to detect the presence of P. salmonis in salmonid fishes, this work proposed the use of MALDI-TOF-MS to compare serum protein profiles from Salmo salar fish, including experimentally infected and non-infected fishes using principal component analysis (PCA). Samples were obtained from a controlled bioassay where S. salar was challenged with P. salmonis in a cohabitation model and classified according to the presence or absence of the bacteria by real time PCR analysis. MALDI spectra of the fish serum samples showed differences in its serum protein composition. These differences were corroborated with PCA analysis. The results demonstrated that the use of both MALDI-TOF-MS and PCA represents a useful tool to discriminate the fish status through the analysis of salmonid serum samples.

Piscirickettsiosis and Piscirickettsia salmonis in fish: a review

The bacterium Piscirickettsia salmonis is the aetiological agent of piscirickettsiosis a severe disease that has caused major economic losses in the aquaculture industry since its appearance in 1989. Recent reports of P. salmonis or P. salmonis-like organisms in new fish hosts and geographical regions have increased interest in the bacterium. Because this gram-negative bacterium is still poorly understood, many relevant aspects of its life cycle, virulence and pathogenesis must be investigated before prophylactic procedures can be properly designed. The development of effective control strategies for the disease has been limited due to a lack of knowledge about the biology, intracellular growth, transmission and virulence of the organism. Piscirickettsiosis has been difficult to control; the failure of antibiotic treatment is common, and currently used vaccines show variable long-term efficacy. This review summarizes the biology and characteristics of the bacterium, including its virulence; the infective strategy of P. salmonis for survival and evasion of the host immune response; the host immune response to invasion by this pathogen; and newly described features of the pathology, pathogenesis, epidemiology and transmission. Current approaches to the prevention of and treatment for piscirickettsiosis are discussed.